China's fallen strongman and the mysterious "Xinjiang sage"

BEIJING, June 11 (Reuters) - The sentencing of China's
former domestic security chief Zhou Yongkang to life in prison
on Thursday exposed his alleged links to a mysterious fortune
teller and healer who forged close ties with powerful figures in
the country's political elite.

Zhou, 72, the most senior Chinese official to be ensnared in
a graft probe since the ruling Communist Party swept to power in
1949, was found guilty at a secret trial of bribery, leaking
state secrets and abuse of power.

Among his crimes was the unauthorized release of six secret
documents to Cao Yongzheng, state media said, a man previously
identified by Chinese media as a soothsayer, mystic and expert
in qigong, a Chinese spiritual martial art similar to tai chi.

"Zhou leaked five 'extremely confidential' documents and one
'confidential' document to Cao Yongzheng, who should not have
been given knowledge of the documents, directly contravening the
State Secrets Law," the official Xinhua news agency said, citing
the court's judgment.

Cao provided testimony against Zhou in a closed-door trial
in the northern city of Tianjin on May 22, the news agency said,
though it was unclear whether he had done so in person or by
deposition, or if he was also in custody.

Dubbed the "Xinjiang sage" by Chinese media, after the far
Western region where he grew up, Cao garnered a following in
celebrity and official circles in the 1990s for his purported
knack for fortune telling and curing untreatable ailments.

Cao's talents allowed him to cultivate contacts that reached
into the upper echelons of the country's ruling elite, respected
business magazine Caixin said last year.

In 2005, he teamed up with a former official at state-run
China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) to set up a Hong
Kong-based firm that jointly developed oil blocks in Xinjiang
and Jilin province, the magazine said.

Zhou's trial did not mark the first time mystical
proclivities of a senior leader has drawn the Party's ire.

Li Chuncheng, a former senior official in the southwestern
Sichuan province, where Zhou had been party chief, had been an
associate of Cao's, Caixin reported.

Li was accused of abusing his position to engage in
"feudalistic and superstitious acts", according to Party
accusations in trial against him that began in April.

Li later testified against Zhou.

China's officially atheist Communist Party brooks no
challenge to its rule and is obsessed with social stability. It
has particularly taken aim at cults, which have multiplied
across the country in recent years. Demonstrations have been put
down with force and some sect leaders executed.
(Reporting by Michael Martina and Ben Blanchard; Editing by
Alex Richardson)